The Planet Cried
by LongHairAndLasers
Summary: Instead of seeing the rising of Atlantis, the Doctor, Amy and Rory emerge in a submarine deep beneath an impossible alien asteroid, where the Doctor meets an old enemy...
1. Atlantis

**The Planet Cried**

**Chapter 1**

"So how many times have you seen it then?" Amy asked the Doctor, over the hum of the TARDIS's engines. They were waiting for Rory to come back from the wardrobe, the size of which would allow even the fussiest of stars an outfit that they wouldn't mind.

"A few times." The Doctor replied, as he turned the "Twiddly-thing". The last time Amy asked what it did, the Doctor had talked about quantum flux and random energy dissipation. After seeing the look on Amy's face, he then said that, if she was happy to be wrong, it was like losing your socks because the holes in them grow and multiply, until you get a hole with sock pieces in it. Amy was happy to be wrong, and though of it like that.

"Why? Don't you ever get bored of it? Or worry about seeing yourself, and causing a paradox?" Amy was just trying to attach two over hanging cables together, to "Provide coolant to the quantum destabilizer stabilizer". The only reason she did it was because the last time she didn't the cables squirted strange, blue liquid over her.

The Doctor stared at her, his mouth aghast. "Bored? All those cheers, all those hopes and dreams being answered, it's brilliant! And as for seeing myself, well..." The Doctor suddenly shifted slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable when he wasn't telling the whole truth about something. He looked like that a lot. "I looked a lot different one hundred years ago. " He broke out in a cheery smile again. "Besides, what's the use of having a time machine if you can't see the same thing a few times over?"

Amy smirked, then asked, "Really, dreams?"

The Doctor looked at her with a knowing smile. "Well, some people have less conventional dreams then others."

Amy looked at him. "But who dreams of places they've never been to?"

"Just because you've never been there doesn't mean you haven't heard the stories, haven't dreamt what it would be like! So many people have tried to get to places just based on stories. Dick Whittington, Columbus-"

"You!" Rory interrupted, walking up the staircase to the console. "I remember all those stories you made up about the TARDIS, the cockpit, the library, the swimming pool, you dreamt all those places up. I still remember that Lego model you made, it filled the entire room. And half of it was mine..."

"Well, still. Who would dream of lifting Atlantis back up from under the sea?" Amy said with a huff.

"Humans would! Makes perfect sense to you guys, of course! The world needs a bit more land, so you guys detach a drowned island! It's such a human thing to do, instead of building a new land, you guys work out a way of bringing back an old land. Of course, it's not until you bring it back up to the surface that you realise what it is, what great history it has." The Doctor said excitedly, as he danced around the console, flicking switches to red or tugging at various bits of rope. He then took hold of one of the railings and vaulted over it, hanging from it with one hand so as to look at the underside of the console.

"Sounds just like someone I know." Amy whispered to herself. "And are you really wearing that, Rory?"

"What's wrong with it?" Rory asked, with a tinge of annoyance to his voice. It had taken ages to get past the Victorian section, And he had felt really uncomfortable squeezing past the various Roman togas and armour. By the time he got to the more modern traditional pieces of clothing, (Well, as modern you can be in a time machine.) he was too tired to care what he would look like and just took the warmest clothes he could find. So he had on a blue jumper, a pair of jeans, a pair of hiking boots and a leather jacket.

"It's a bit bland, isn't it?" Amy said, looking at her husband with a look of despair that those who hate boredom always save for those that seem to want to spread it around everywhere.

"It's functional, which is more then could be said for that!" Rory replied, waving at Amy's dress.

"It looks cool, OK?" Amy said, rising to the defence of her dress. She was wearing jeans under the sort of oversized hippie dress that one usually found at at a fancy dress party, except this one ended at around halfway down the thigh. "I mean, we live in a time travelling space ship, I don't see why I can't take some fashion tips from the past!"

"So how come you or River always destroy my cool hats!" The Doctor said, pulling himself back over the railing.

"Because they're not cool, that's why!" Amy said, barely holding back her laughter. "OK, maybe the pirate hat, but we didn't destroy that one."

"Rory..." The Doctor said, looking at him properly for the first time. "Where did you find that leather jacket?"

"In the wardrobe, near the more conventional clothes." Rory replied. "Why?"

"Conventionalism is relative, you try wearing that at the Olympic games, the original ones, that is. You'll get all sort of funny looks, trust me, I've done it. And I think it may have been with that jacket that I found that particular fact." The Doctor explained, as he started tapping on the typewriter.

"Well, I mainly took it 'cause it looked warm..." Rory murmured, as he went to stand next to Amy. "And at least I'll be warmer then you!" He said in louder tones, as the TARDIS started humming more violently. Rory was more used to it now, and so no longer jumped when the TARDIS started shaking and tumbling through the time stream. Well, he didn't as long as Amy and the Doctor didn't worry. Well, most of the time.

"It's the sea, we'll be fine." Amy said, crossing her arms and glaring at Rory, but her serious look was betrayed with a tiny smile on her face.

"Well, you'll get to find out, because we're here!" The Doctor said, a smile beaming from his face, as he opened the doors to a dark, smelly damp room.

"Umm, Doctor? This doesn't look like the sea." Rory said, looking at the room in front of them. It looked more like some kind of closet, and with the various cleaning equipment, it seemed as though they were in some sort of cleaners closet.

"Patience Rory, we just need to go up top to get the view. I assume this must be one of the news ships recording the event. It's very big, you know, the right footage could get over a billion views on YouTube, if it hasn't been arrested for treason yet... There we go!" The Doctor exclaimed, as the door opened after a couple of burst of the sonic screwdriver.

"How can a website be arrested for treason?" Amy asked as the three of them walked out through a corridor, keeping an eye out for any nosy security guards. The corridor seemed to really need the cleaner, it having grey walls, or beige, it was hard to tell. There seemed to be random paint patches down the corridor, with rust in abundance everywhere, and vents in the ceilings humming above them. The floor was carpeted, or at least the three of them hoped so. It was either green with blue patches of paint or mould had started growing on it.

"Oh of course, the internet hasn't become an official country yet in your time, has it? Forget I said anything." The Doctor said, as he pushed the two of them into a lift with him. It was a bit of a squeeze, but they could fit in the grey square cuboid rather easily after a bit of awkward shuffling. What looked like a type of disco ball The Doctor pressed the button nearest the top and waited as the lift doors closed.

Rory realised that he could hear chattering, and it was coming from Amy. "Not cold, are you Amy?" He asked with a very wide grin.

Amy turned around and gave him a glare only a wife could give. "Nope, I'm fine." She hissed through clenched teeth. Rory wisely decided against offering her his jacket.

"And here we are then!" The Doctor said as he looked out to the sea in the front of him. It was sun set, and as always with sunsets, it was beautiful. The Doctor had seen a lot of them, and each of one of them was beautiful. No matter what the planet, the star or even the time, they were always beautiful. Except for one, but that wasn't really a sunset, for a sun can help produce life. That sunset was caused by an all consuming fire, a fire that the Doctor started, and that, as long as it was outside time, would in essence burn forever. The last sunset of Gallifrey would last for ever, all because of him.

A sudden bang lifted the Doctor from his thoughts. "Here it comes, get ready guys!" He said, excited as he stepped forward and banged his heads on an invisible wall.

"Doctor!" Amy exclaimed, as she jumped down to help him up. "Are you okay?" She asked him as he stood unsteadily on his feat.

"Yes, I'm fine. It appears that we aren't really looking at the re-emergence of Atlantis, it's just a recording, being projected around us, like an in-flight movie, or some sort of advert..." He trailed of as the words "If you can't go to the Atlantis, make Atlantis come to you." appeared on the screen in big letters, just as a huge island crashed through the surface of the sea.

"So, where are we then?" Amy asked, just as the doors opened for real, this time sending a blast of cold air through the door. Amy reacted by grabbing Rory's jacket, tearing it off him and putting it on herself.

"Hey!" He said in an offended tone. "You could have asked!"

"Well you could have offered!" Amy retorted, wiping a couple of stray hairs from her eyes.

"You two, stop fighting." The Doctor said, as he raised his hands above his head, to show the robot that was almost twice his size that he was unarmed and that it had no reason to fire the gun that was pointed at his head. "We have bigger problems..."


	2. Tour Guides

**Chapter 2**

"All of us are unarmed." The Doctor said, very slowly. His hands were still up, but he had the screwdriver in his hands, just in case he couldn't solve this with words. Robot guards were not uncommon, but a robot guard with a gun? They were definitely illegal. The Doctor assumed that whoever had built this particular model must have been built with a severity chip, which allowed it to view anyone committing certain crimes as a non-human, bypassing the first law of robotics. Needless to say, this took up a lot of CPU power, which meant that most robots with this this chip were stupid, and easily fooled. "You have no need to shoot us..."

"I know, I'm not stupid." The robot said. OK, maybe not so easily fooled. It looked vaguely human shaped, with two legs and two arms. However, it's torso was a great deal bigger then a normal human torso, and it emitted a white glow in the many gaps. It looked as if they were there on purpose, as they were all symmetrical. It looked like it was made to close in on itself if needed, with a flurry of various hydraulics systems visible from the Doctors view. The head was nothing like a human head, if anything it looked like a hammerhead shark. What looked like small headlights were attached to the underside of a camera on each side of the head, and behind each camera was a tube, which led directly to the centre of it's torso. The voice with which it had spoken seemed to come from a speaker near the top of the torso, but not actually at the head, and the voice was surprisingly human. "State your name, rank and purpose."

"Oh, I think you'll find that this will show you everything thing you need to see." The Doctor said, as he put his hands in his pocket and pulled out a leather wallet, with a blank piece of paper inside.

The robot stared at the piece of paper. "...I see. Well then, please follow me." The robot then turned around, and started walking through the corridor. It looked a lot cleaner then the one that they had originally materialised in, and was actually just one colour, white. It looked like someone actually looked after this place, with it's painted white walls and almost spotless carpet. The lights in the ceiling were circular, and looked like half a disco ball, with lights coming out of each segment. It was oddly relaxing, mostly because, at the moment, they were rather dim. The hall was huge, and killed them

"Well then, I guess, since..." The Doctor started, as he waved his screwdriver quickly at the lift, "...As I thought, the lift is no longer working, let's go! Come along, Ponds!"

"Doctor, what did the paper say we are?" Amy whispered, as the three of them started walking after the robot.

"Hmm," The Doctor mused, as he quickly looked at the paper in his hands. "Apparently, we're tour guides." He said, with a beaming grin on his face. "That's fantastic, I've never been a tour guide before! Now I get to tell people random facts without them having to tell me to shut up all the time."

"In all fairness, we're usually about to be killed as you try to tell us random facts." Amy said, with a bit of sadness. She actually liked it when the Doctor told them bizarre facts about where they were, she just wished that he was better a timing.

"There's never a bad time to learn. Like now for instance. Hey!" The Doctor yelled at the robot. "I was wandering, could you give us some background information?"

"What about?" The robot said. "Do you wish to hear about me or the ship?"

"Ooh, well, I suppose you, if you're offering. It's usually harder then this to get people talking about themselves, so I'm not about to skip an opportunity like this!" The Doctor said, enthusiastically. Amy rolled her eyes, she knew the Doctor was talking about River.

"Understood. I am a prototype robot, named NATOAR, Nautical Amphibian Travelling Or Animal Researcher. My body was constructed to allow me to travel on land or in water, and my head was created this way to allow the maximum line of sight. My cameras are able to switch between infra-red, normal and ultra-violet. I can also echo-locate using my microphone and speakers. I can close of my chest cavity and use my arms and legs as propellers for easy manoeuvrability in water. I was assigned this mission for this reason."

"So... you're like a transformer?" Rory said, trying to get into the conversation.

"I am not used for changing the voltage and current of electricity." NATOAR said.

"I, uh, I meant like the cartoon..." Rory's sentence trailed off as Amy glared at him. "Sorry..."

"Anyway," The Doctor started, "What is this mission?"

"The mission is to research life in Lacrima. It is an ongoing mission, it was initiated 10 years ago. During the 10 years, we have found out a lot about the species in this body of water, and how they came to be, but our funding has been used up. We tried using advertising, but it's pretty useless to advertise something a mere 100 people are going to see. Now we are to be used as a tourist ship, to allow many customers the chance to experience this unique opportunity and see all these unique creatures. During the 10 years I have been here, I have been tested, improved and patented, which is a major reason that it has only recently been allowed to let tourist on board our ship."

"And that's why we're here, we're your new tour guides." Amy said, not to try and convince NATOAR that they were the tour guides, but to convince the Doctor to take on the role.

"So, if tourists are allowed on the ship, why did you have a gun pointed at us?" Amy asked, looking at the gun in the robots hand.

"A gun?" NATOAR asked. He looked down at his hands, and realised what Amy was talking about. It couldn't blame them, it did look like a pistol, albeit one with a a lot more wires and tubes then one would usually see. "This is not a gun, it is a regulatory portable welder, though it has been modified to work under water." It pointed to the valves near the nuzzle. "I have to repair the ship a lot of the time, so it is more efficient to keep it with me."

"Why would the ship need so much repairing." The Doctor asked.

"We have reached the briefing room." NATOAR said, suddenly stopping the group, and ignoring the Doctor. They were in a circular room, about the size of a hotel reception, which contained a whole assortment of gadgets and screens, all circling around three chairs in the middle of the room. This room was white, like the corridor, but much brighter. There were three corridors that led away from the room, including the one that they had just come from. There was also a ladder facing away from each other at two sides of the room, both leading to a cover in the ceiling. There were also an assortment of sofas and chairs littered around the room. "You can look around while Captain Webb makes his way here from the control room. I have to go to Professor Dawson." NATOAR told them before he walked off down a different corridor.

"Well then..."The Doctor said as he turned around to look at the two Ponds. "Let's look around!"

Amy headed off to climb through one of the ladders, while the Doctor and Rory went to look at the screens. Amy opened up the latch to the cover, and climbed up through the hatch. The view through the tiny transparent bubble was beautiful. It was like she was in the middle of a piece of sapphire, a dark blue colour was in her view no matter where she looked. She could see plants just floating along, at least she thought they were plants. They were green, at least, but apart from that, they looked nothing like a normal plant you would see on Earth. To begin with, it was a sphere. It looked like a spherical bud, with leaves acting as the cage for the delicate flower within. It must have been thick, as there was a collection of tiny worm like things trying to bury into it.

As Amy was looking at it, one of these tiny worm things passed right in front of eyes, and she could get a better look at it. It looked like a tadpole, but with many more tails, all intertwined like a rope, which propelled it through the water at a fairly large speed. The, for want of a better word, face of the creature was basically a round mouth, like that of a leech, except it was slowly turning around, as if it was a drill. As Amy watched it, she realised it was heading towards the bud. Just before it hit the bud, it suddenly gained a burst of speed and borrowed into it, whirring it's teeth into the leaves. Amy gave a little giggle, she could see some of the creatures weren't as tough, and had got their teeth stuck in a leaf while their bodies spinning around, as if it was on a pivot.

And then Amy saw the stars. She could see them wherever she looked, as thought they passed the dark blue water, dodged the glass of the dome and went straight into her eyes. They looked like they were being looked at through diamond, one star being transformed to look like a hundred. It was beautiful.

"Wow..." Amy said. Then the room shuddered and she fell of the ladder, hitting the ground with a thump.

"Amy!" Rory yelled, as he rushed over to his wife. "Are you OK?" Rory felt Amy's head, then started checking for broken bones. He was secretly a bit happy, for once Amy had need for his skills as a nurse, and not the Doctor. He told that part of his brain to shut up.

"I'm fine." Amy murmured, as she wiped hair out of her eyes. Rory kept on checking to see if anything was broken, which Amy found a bit insulting. Surely she of all people could tell if she was hurt. "Oi, stupid face!" She said, grabbing Rory's face. She made him stare her in the eyes. "I said I'm fine. Now help me up!" She said, with a smile. Rory smiled back, grabbed her hands, and pulled her up. She hugged him, then turned to the Doctor. "Now, what was that?" She asked.

"That... May have been me." The Doctor said sheepishly. "I think I turned one of the engines off and on suddenly. Sorry!" He beamed at her. Amy just rolled her eyes, and walked off to look more around the room.

Rory walked over to the Doctor. "Thanks for covering for me." He said, after looking over his shoulder to make sure Amy was out of ear shot.

"It's fine, I shouldn't have told you that none of the buttons would effect the ship. Just, next time you see an ignition button, don't touch it." The Doctor said, smiling as he started sonicing the computer screen. "Now, let's see if we can find out some information about this ship." He whispered.

Amy yelled at the two of them. "Hey guys, you might want to look at this." She pointed to a group of screens, that all pointed to a centre. Floating in the air was what looked like a submarine, but at the front was a huge drill, about twice the size of the middle section of the ship. At the end of the ship was a selection of thrusters, all with a spinning propeller on the inside. The Doctor pressed a button, and suddenly the propellers were unable to be seen, instead coming out of the thrusters was a bright blue flame, and even thought it was only a hologram, you could almost feel the heat.

"Oh wow!" The doctor said, a smile on his face. "It's an amphibian ship! Able to go through space an the sea, though this is the first I've seen with the drill..." The Doctor said, peering closer at the drill.

"That's to get through the ice." A gruff voice said. The Doctor, Amy and Rory look round. Standing in one of the archways to a corridor was a rather old man, though obviously one that kept himself well. He had a grey beard, and beneath his captains hat you could see a sliver of grey hair. He had on a pair of sunglasses, which stopped anyone from being able to see his eyes. He was well built, with his large uniform fitting comfortably over him. "You must be the tour guides." He said, looking at the three of them.

"Yes, that's us!" Amy said, linking her arms with the Doctor's and Rory's. "We're the tour guides." She smiled as widely as she could, trying not to show the worry in her eyes.

"Nice to meet you, you must be the boss." The man said, shaking Amy's hand. "I'm Captain Bailey, nice to meet you." He said, in a cheery voice. "Now, I suppose you want to know when the tours will start, eh?"

"Well, actually we had some questions-" The Doctor started, before being cut off.

"You're in luck! We have a pair of tourists boarding the ship in about half an hour! We were getting a bit worried, thought the agency had forgotten about us." He boomed at three of them.

"Well, we're here, aren't we?" Amy beamed, trying her best to not be suspicious, and being very suspicious while doing it.

"Now, what can you-" The Doctor was interrupted again.

"Well, you guys better get into your uniforms! I mean, you look OK in those clothes, but they're not very professional." Captain Bailey said.

"Umm..." Rory started, looking at Amy, begging her to take over.

"We lost our uniforms!" Amy burst out with.

Captain Bailey blinked. "You... lost them?"

"Yeah! All our luggage got lost, got sent to the wrong planet." Rory said, rubbing the back of his head, looking like a school boy who hadn't done his homework.

"Hmm, well." The Captain said, turning around suddenly. "I have no uniforms to wear, so I suppose you'll have to stick with what you're wearing now. Oh, wait!" Captain Bailey suddenly turned back round, a smile on his face. "I have something you can wear to look more professional!" He ran off down a corridor.

"He's very... Excitable." Rory said, letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in.

"Reminds me of someone else..." Amy said, looking at the Doctor. "And we still don't know anything about this ship. Some tour guides we're going to be."

"We'll be fine, let's see if we can find any information about where this ship is." The Doctor said, dismissing Amy's worries with a wave of his hand.

"Well, I'm not sure if it will help, but that's one distinctive view out there." Amy said, pointing at one of the covers that had led her to the beautiful view of outside. The Doctor climbed the ladder, up to the top. He then climbed back down again. "Oh, we're in a Bulla!" He said, excitedly.

"Umm, what's a Bulla?" Rory asked.

"It's a very rare and beautiful thing." The Doctor said, rubbing his hands with glee. "It's a bubble of water, travelling through space. There are loads of ways these things come about, mostly when hydrogen clouds and oxygen clouds meet in deep space. It's extremely rare, but it can happen! And this was, it's almost a once-in-a-universe thing! A Bulla, with life in it! How have I not heard of this before?" He started to fiddle with the gadgets again, and the hologram stopped being a ship and became a beautiful blue sphere. Surrounding the whole thing was a thin sheet of ice. "Even the stars aren't enough to thaw the coldness of space." The Doctor murmured. A sign came up from the bottom: _Lacrima. _

"So, that's why it's got a massive drill on the front, yeah?" Amy stated. She was starting to get uncomfortable with how quiet the Doctor was being. He was concentrating, which was disturbing when the Doctor did it.

"Yeah, so it can burrow into the ice." The Captain had returned, carrying a bag around his shoulders.

The Doctor grabbed him by the shoulders. "Isn't that brilliant? Isn't that completely logical, and at the same time completely illogical? That's what so great about you humans. Most other species have only one system to base their logic on, deduction, maths, trial and error. You humans, you take all of them, and switch them between each other, whenever needed! And the barmy thing is, it works!"

Captain Bailey looked at Amy. "Could you keep your staff under control, please?" He said, an ever so slightly proud but mostly bemused smile on his face.

"Of course. Doctor, shut up." She said, with a smile. He did.

"Now then, I got these for you." Captain Bailey said, as he tipped a trio of sailor hats out of the bag. "I must insist you wear them," He said, before looking up and seeing that the Doctor was already wearing his. Amy and Rory were less keen, but wanting to keep on the right side of the captain, they put on their hats.

"Now, this should allow you to go anywhere on this ship without being asked questions." The Captain explained. "Unless, of course, you're talking to the tourists." He gave a hearty laugh at his own joke. Amy and Rory giggled half heartedly, dread over taking them as they looked at each other with their hats. The Doctor gave a loud "HAH" then reacted in no other way. Captain Bailey looked at him strangely. "And uh, just before you head off to the loading bay, I was wandering if you could do me a favour?" He said.

"What is it?" Amy asked. She was really starting to like this whole boss thing. She could get used to this.

"I know you probably have your own prepared speech, but I was wandering if I could perhaps encourage you to, uh, allow me to tell you what to say?" Captain Bailey had a sheepish grin on, the sort a child would give after asking for free sweets.

"Um..." Amy started, shooting a look at the Doctor, who just put on a "I'm just a simple employee, you're the boss" look. Actually, Amy probably imagined that, but never the less, the Doctor provided no useful hints as to what she should say. Looked like it was time to put that Drama GCSE into action. "Why, that would be fine." Hah, nailed it!

"Good! OK then, let me just..." Captain Bailey started rummaging through his pockets, pulling out a packet of sweets, then a strange device that looked like a phone. He quickly glanced at it. "Oh, I have an appointment in a bit..." He murmured to himself, before putting the device in another pocket. He then took a roll of paper from his pocket. "Ah, here it is!" He exclaimed, before shoving it at Amy. "I need to head off to a meeting." He said, before saluting, turning around and running down one of the corridors.

"Yep. Definitely reminds me of someone." Amy smirked. She rolled out the piece of paper she had been given. It was impossible to read, all the ink had been smudged about. It looked like the Captain had attacked a stressed squid, before letting a bunch of pigs run wild with it. "Well, we're not going to get any help with this." Amy moaned.

The Doctor walked over and soniced the paper. "Ooh, it's a page-thingy, very useful to have on a submarine. Like psychic paper, only less cool. Just tell it to clarify."

"Umm, OK." Amy said, then cleared her throat, and said "Clarify!" The ink started shifting, hirling around the page until it all pooled at the top, before it started to drip down. As it passed down, the page, the ink stopped in places, reminding Amy of when water would form puddles in the ground at the lowest points. She stared at the paper that was still clearing, and could see no indents, but the ink seemed to fill them anyway. It was an interesting site, but the Doctor was more interested in the words being written.

"Oh, now this is brilliant!" He exclaimed, that all to familiar grin he always showed when he saw something particularly cool. "This, this is the Enatant. It is a very nifty craft, built 20 years ago after the formation of this Bulla, the Lacrima. Formed in the most deadly fashion, an asteroid hit some sort of holiday planet, causing this beautiful thing to be blasted of the planets surface into space! A bit like when Enatant was made to explore the Lacrima, to see if it was possible to use this beautiful thing as a, get this, fuel source." The Doctor pulled a face that he usually saved for when he smelt baked beans cooking. "But after they found that there was life on it, they started researching possible uses into terraforming, after getting funds from the sponsors and the Great Science Theatre."

"But why would that be so unusual?" Rory asked. "I mean, wasn't there life already on the planet?"

"No, it was barren. Unliveable. Completely impossible, until your lot come along. You guys make it so hard for yourself."

Amy was about to cut in here, but before she could an androgynous voice suddenly cut in. "Shuttle boarding in 5 minutes."

"And there's our cue! If I just do a bit of jiggery-pokery," With this, the Doctor placed his screwdriver next to one of the screens, and soniced it. After a couple of seconds, he pulled it away, and started pointing it around. "This way!" He said, as he heard the screwdriver give out a selection of beeps. He ran off, with Amy and Rory running behind him.

They passed an assortment of bland tunnels, all looking like they were out of an old World War II submarine movie. The Doctor mumbled something about resistance and sturdiness. Amy just got annoyed that it didn't look more, well, alien. There were a couple of rooms that they passed, and from more then a couple the trio could hear music. At least, some race out there had to classify it as music, the rest of the universe just heard what sounded like songbirds being blended. "Modern music, I'll never understand it!" The Doctor called back to the Ponds, before stopping and turning into a corner.

"Is there any need to run?" Amy yelled at the Doctor, as they reached a fork in the road.

The Doctor looked at his sonic screwdriver. "Nope!" He said, before running past Amy and Rory into the hallway they had just come out from.

"We've just come from there!" Rory said, exasperated.

"And now we're going back, well done keeping up, Rory." The Doctor, said, clapping with both hands by putting the screwdriver in his mouth. Amy and Rory looked at each other, then ran off after him.

It took about four minutes and three U-turns until the three time travellers arrived at the docking bay. This at least looked a bit more, as the Doctor knew Rose would have put it, Spock. The whole white room was shaped like an egg that had been cut in half down from the tip. Around the curved ceiling was three tubes, all with what looked like to be an airlock on them, which contrasted sharply with the white ceiling, being coloured black. At first, the Doctor thought the ground was a mirror, until he looked closer, and realised that it was, in fact, a giant glass floor. On the other side were tubes just like the one on the ceiling, except these ones were smaller, and there were more of them, at least 10 more. If the Doctor had to guess, he'd say they were escape pods. The writing in the corner confirmed it, "In case of emergency, break glass with foot." He liked that, straight to the point.

"So, now we wait?" Amy asked, as she looked around the room.

"Now we wait." The Doctor confirmed. Amy was just about to ask how long it would take, before the same voice that told them when the shuttle was boarding cut in again.

"Shuttle is now boarding. Please watch out for shifting gravity in the boarding area."

"Doctor, what does that mean?" Rory said, as he turned his eyes away from the floor, to see the Doctor and Amy holding on to a rope ladder at the wall. "Hey-" He started to say, before the floor he was standing on became the ceiling, and vice versa. He landed with an audible thump, but as he briskly checked himself, nothing was hurt except his pride.

"The gravity shifts, that's why there are all those ladders," The Doctor said, pointing at the rope ladders that surrounded the walls of the room. "It's so you always have access to an escape pod, if needed."

"Why rope ladders?" Amy asked.

"Much easier to grab and hold onto if needed. Sometime simple is better!" The Doctor said. "No time for that now, Pond, you have to introduce yourself! Look, the airlock is opening!"

Amy looked at the door that was now on the "wall". It was slowly opening, and she suddenly got and attack of nerves. Stage fright, she remembered that's why she only ever got a C in Drama GCSEs. She ussually had control over it, but now she was being considered a boss, she suddenly got them back, and they were in no hurry to leave her. All she could do was put on a smile, and await whatever strange and unusual beings were inside the shuttle.

"Hello! Bananas is triangulating the phone of the excessive laser!"


	3. Trouble

**Chapter 3**

Pine hated weddings. They were rubbish, boring and someone one always offered her alcohol, which would have killed her instantly. Just because she had two legs, everyone assumed that she could do all the things a human could do, but she couldn't. However, she only had to deal with these wedding days for only one day, then she could stop pretending to be polite and could moan all about it to her work colleagues.

That was until her sister decided to get married. And to a human, none the less. Then she had to spend months helping her with the wedding, help grow a dress, travel around contacting potential guests, and then get herself ready for the big day. She had to get herself waxed, pruned and varnished, all to look good for her sister. And now she was stuck in a tube, heading off towards a stupid submarine in a stupid Bulla, all because of that stupid eruption on that stupid moon. If it weren't for that, they wouldn't be looking for a replacement wedding area. And as a sister and a bridesmaid, she had been sent to find a new one. Her and the best man, despite her arguments.

Gary was a git. A complete and total one. He saw females of any species as an invading army saw the country they were invading; targets. He had attempted to do something a work colleague had once discussed, flirting. It involved a strange cycle of insulting her and complimenting her, and only stopped when Pine had knotted him in the human version of the stigma. He had stopped complimenting her after that, though he hadn't stopped trying his luck with the two pilots of the ship, even when he realised that they were an item. However he did stop when he found out that the redhead used to be male, so at least Pine didn't have to hear his idiotic ramblings the whole flight.

She passed the time by looking out of the window, looking at the site that lay ahead of her. She could see why her sister wanted to get married here, it was beautiful. And there was also the fact that they would be the first married couple in Lacrima, which really appealed to the happy couple. The had originally planned to be wed above Mount Regulle, or as it was more commonly known, the Great Plume. It had been one of the great wonders of Igull, a constant pink plume of smoke was emitted from the volcano, and after the cure for lung damage caused by the smoke had been found, it was a number one tourist spot. Until the volcano erupted. That kind of put a damper on the tourist industry, and the wedding. Then Gary had heard from one of his bed fellows about Lacrima, and here they were.

Pine was snapped out of her daydream by the sudden stop of the shuttle. It appeared they were at the airlock, and were being boarding the Enatant, which meant Pine was closer to getting this wedding over with, thank the Roots. Now, it was time to make sure she gave a good first impression,. She stood up, smoothed out her dress, and get ready to speak.

"Bonjour! La banane est triangulant du téléphone du au laser excessif!" Gary said. Great, he was already trying to flirt with the first woman he saw, and with such an old cliché! Come on, barely anyone new French any more, so Gary could say any random drivel and no one would kn-

"Pardon? Je ne comprends pas!" Asked the red-haired girl who stood in front of the door. She was wearing what appeared to be a multi-dye dress, with a leather jacket, which struck Pine as an odd combo. Behind her was a man who, in her opinion, looked much more suited to be in a ship, with a sensible warm attire. She could see that his expression was one of slight annoyance, mixed with suspicion, like a cat which had it's seat taken. Next to him was what looked like a madman. He had on a tweed jacket and a black bow-tie, but that wasn't what made him look mad. What made him look mad was his hat. The other two had hats, but they looked like most people who had hats as uniforms, like they wished it would disappear. This man was playing with his hat, moving it about, trying to find out what it would look like in different ways. The two pilots left to find their quarters, they had no interest in the tour or the wedding, they just wanted to get some sleep.

The grin on Gary's face had frozen, his eyes did the exact opposite, darting around trying to see if anyone had seen what an idiot he had made of himself. Pine decided to put the poor sod out of his misery. "I apologise for my companion, he's been watching too many old Earth movies, thinks speaking French will make him seem like a ladies man. I am Pine, this," She waved her hand at Gary as if he was a particularly annoying bug, "Is Gary, and we are here for the tour." With this sentence, Pine stretched out her hand, waiting for it to be shaken.

The red-haired girl just stared at her hand, a look of suppressed shock on her face. Pine just kept looking at the three of them, forcing the smile on her face to continue to stay there. The man with the shifting hat nudged the girl, and pointed to Pine's hand. The girl gave a nervous chuckle, and suddenly swooped down, shaking Pine's hands with both her own. "I am so sorry, we only just got here, and some of us are still suffering from space lag, you know?" The girl said, her voice having an unusual accent. "We are the tour guides, I am Amy, this is my husband Rory," She put her arms around the man with the sensible clothes. "And this is the Doctor. He likes to be called that on account of his big ego." The girl, Amy, gave a wide grin at this, just as the madman turned around with a hurt look on his face. "Anyway," Amy cut in, before the Doctor could speak." Let's get going! Lots to do, I guess..." She whispered the last part of the sentence, but Pine still heard. She was a secretary for a very old company, which had very old men and woman who could barely speak as the board of directors. She had learnt to listen to murmurs, after the many, many pay cuts.

OOO

Amy and the Doctor walked ahead of the group, mostly because the Doctor was the one with the screwdriver, and therefore the only one who knew where he was going. Amy was ahead with him because, well, she wanted some answers, and not the fake ones that Rory was giving to the tourists.

"Doctor, why is she a tree?" Amy asked, trying to catch up with the Doctor.

The Doctor passed a look over his shoulder, before looking back at his screwdriver. "Why are you a human? It's all nature and coincidences, the world is full of them. I mean, you look Timelord, well, what most of us before looked like, but you only have one heart, how weird is that?"

"Hey, having one heart is fine. Oh, I should never have had to say that." Amy put her hand to her head, massaging it. She had to do that a lot more when the Doctor was around. "So, does she breathe oxygen or...?"

"She's a tree, what do you think." Even though Amy couldn't see the Doctors face, she knew exactly what face he was pulling. It was the same face he pulled when Amy had asked him if they been in a tiny bubble universe. Why did the Doctor have to be so blooming confusing all the time? "Now, why don't you ask me what you really want to ask me?"

Amy hated it when he did that. "Well, why are we still here?" She asked, "I mean, we haven't exactly found anything really, well, interesting, have we?

The Doctor turned around, his mouth wide open, and his eyes confused. "Amelia Pond, we are inside a spaceship, which is inside a giant ball of water that is travelling through space. There is a Tree literally walking behind us, with a whole different biology to you or anyone on Earth. If you're bored, go talk to her!"

Amy stared at him. "And what about you? You already know pretty much everything, what's to stop you from being bored."

The Doctor grinned at her. "That's like asking why bother going to the Grand Canyon if you've seen pictures of it. Nothing is quite the same as being there." His grin was the thoughtful grin he had whenever he was thinking and trying to reassure Amy at the same time. "Now, why don't you go back to Rory, he looks like he's running out of "facts"."

"And this is where the, er, Pandora was integrated into the neutron flow..." Amy could hear her husband trying desperately to come up with new stories to impress the two tourists. She rolled her eyes, smiled at the Doctor and walked over to Rory.

"Now then, where do you guys want to go next?" Amy said, looking at the two of them. Well, she looked at Pine, she tried to not make eye contact with Gary, despite his efforts.

"Well, we we're hoping to find a room with a view, hopefully one with a big window, and a view." Pine said, looking Amy right in the eye.

"We can do that, let me just get the Doctor to lead us there." Amy said, signalling the Doctor.

"Already on it, "Boss"." The Doctor gave his sonic a flick, and then ran into a doorway.

"DOCTOR!" Amy shouted to the Doctor, waving at him to stop. "No running! We don't need to this time!"

The Doctor walked back through the door, smiling sheepishly at the four of them. "Sorry, these legs just really like to run!" No amount of smiling would stop Amy from glaring at him, though a little waving of the eyebrows did manage to tease a smirk from the angry Pond.

OOO

"It's beautiful." Pine said, with no whimsy or wonder. She said it the way a husband describes a dress that was paid with the money he had been planning to use to buy a car. It was beautiful, but was it really worth the journey, the money and the company?

A part of her she had kept hidden told her yes. That little bit of her that had secretly been happy to be a bridesmaid, that had been sad when the wedding would no longer take place at the Great Plumes, it told her what she really really wished was not true. That sometimes, beauty is worth all the time, money and people in the universe. Well, maybe not all the people.

The creatures swimming about seemed almost cute, except maybe for the occasional predator that looked at her a bit too long for her own comfort. The plants kept themselves hidden away, refusing to even show a hint of petal. It was a shame, that sort of background view would have really made the holo-vids less suicide inducing. Well, maybe. The eel like things, the Doctor had called them likelings, they were darting around everywhere. The Doctor had said that they used all their energy into getting from one plant to the other, all competing to be the first to feed on whatever was inside those huge buds. If they didn't make it,. They just tried another one, and another. They never gave up. If two different likelings managed to find there way into the same bud, they would mate inside, then allow the offspring to feed on the inside of the plant before heading off to different plants. The Doctor did not stop stop grinning throughout his whole story session, as he looked outside towards the amazing creatures. Pine couldn't help but feel a bit more nervous, people that were that in love of the world around them were usually extremely crazy.

Then she saw it. A shadow, something moving out there. Something trying to stay hidden. Something looking to destroy them. Didn't she? The wedding must have been getting to her, to her annoyance. She ripped her eyes from the huge window and turned to see how everyone was reacting to the view.

The ginger girl, Amy, she was looking out with a grin that could rival the Doctors. Maybe not big enough to beat it, but certainly enough to give it a run for its money. The Doctor was next to her, talking to her through the side of his mouth, like a sapling trying to be sneaky. "A ship within a bubble of water travelling through space from an alien planet, if you're not impressed now, I give up." Pine heard the Doctor say. It was obviously some sort of inside joke, as Amy smirked, still staring intently outside. The man, Rory, was looking at the stars, awe in his face. His eyes were following the various trails of the likelings, as they buried themselves into the different buds. Even Gary was dazzled by the beauty of it. He was staring straight out, past the deep blue of the water, and straight at the dancing starlight. Pine could suddenly see past the womaniser, and saw the little boy who looked out to space and watched space agent cartoons everyday.

Then he jumped back, the sparkle in his replaced with fear. "What the heck was that?" He said. Everyone snapped out of they're trances, and looked at him.

"What was what?" The Doctor asked, taking out a strange metal rod from his pocket. He pressed a switch and it started emitting an green glow and a strange sonic sound.

"It was like, a shadow. It just popped in and out of view."

"So why," The Doctor started, staring outside the window. "Did you get so scared by it?"

"I just felt like I should." Gary said, the fear trembling through his voice. "It just seemed like I should be scared by it."

"That," The Doctor started brandishing his screwdriver like a wand. "Is very interesting." He pressed his face against the glass, his ear pressed as if he was trying to listen for any irregularities.

"Doctor, what are you-/" Pine started to say, before having a finger pressed to her lips.

"Shush for a minute, or longer if you want." The Doctor said, looking into Pines eyes, his brow furrowed as if he was in deep thought. "Now, can you hear that?" 

Pine listened for whatever the Doctor was trying to point out, but heard nothing. "Listen for what?" She moaned, starting to get really annoyed.

"Just listen! All of you? What do you hear?" The Doctor said, looking at all of them, fear and worry mixed in his eyes.

"I can't hear anything!" Amy said, looking decidedly worried as she grabbed Rory's hand.

"Exactly. And you know why?"

"Why?" Rory trembled.

"Because there is nothing to hear."

Amy, Rory and Gary all looked at the Doctor like he was insane. Only Pine seemed to realise the serious implications of what he had said, at least, that's what the shock on her face seemed to say.

"Oh my Roots, the engines...!" Her voice trailed off, as she looked at the Doctor.

"Yes, thank you, somebody gets it!" The Doctor said, as he turned away from the window. He started pointing around the room. "This and this and most importantly this," He said, pointing to a rather small black box. "Are all powered by the engine at the end of this ship. Now, thanks to a energy dissipation field, the sound that comes from it is much quieter then it can be, but you should still be able to hear it, however faintly. So the question is, why can't we hear it."

Amy looked at the Doctor, her mouth wide open. "Doctor, what does that mean?"

"It means, that in about five hours, the energy on this ship will run out. Then, the shield stopping the stars from burning all of us to death and turning this ship into a tin can will turn off."

"Oh come on, surely the stars are far too far away to effect us in here!" Gary said, brandishing his arm to show the window.

"Well, usually, yes. But, those are no ordinary stars. They're xtonic stars, very rare and very very deadly. Our shields go down, and we all get..." He looked at Amy and Rory, holding hands. It looked like he could spare the grisly details. "Well, it's not a very nice way to go. Quick, though!"

"Then what are we going to do?" Pine said, trying to stop herself from going hysterical.

"You guys are going to the guest quarters. Here," He said., throwing the screwdriver to Rory. "This should lead you there." He turned to leave, however Amy grabbed his arm, and stared him in the face.

"Doctor, why aren't we going to the TARDIS? They'll be fine, they have escape capsules!" She asked. Pine looked at them, wandering what a TARDIS was when it was at home. Probably some sort of weapon, it sounded like one.

"Amy Pond, we're not going yet! We have five hours to go before we need to leave. If it gets to that point, we can always leave in the TARDIS, it's just a lift ride away!"

"I thought you said the ship has ran out of power?" Rory cut in.

"Well, maybe not a lift _ride, _as such. But we can still get down easily enough, well, easier then up." The Doctor headed off again, but before he could get to the door, Gary yelled after him.

"So what, we just go and wait to get burnt alive, do we?" Gary retorted., not trying to hide the anger in his voice.

"No, you wait for me to come back. One of the sensors must be off, stopping the crew from finding out the engine has stopped working, I'll just nip over and tell them. Besides, those rooms are built to withstand anything, no windows means no light to burn you, and no heat can get into it. You'll be perfectly safe, trust me. I'm the Doctor." The Doctor said, putting on his most charming grin before running down the corridor.

"Is he always like that?" Pine said, breaking the silence caused by the Doctors sudden departure.

Rory and Amy looked at each other. "You have no idea."

OOO

The Doctor pounded down the hallways, the lights flickering as they changed their electric supply from the power produced by the engines to the back up battery. His mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities. Whatever this was, it rang a bell with him. Not with this reincarnation, a past one, not to long ago. The last time he went on a ship which broke down and almost allowed the sun disintegrate the occupants had fallen into such a state because of a brain in a jar, a collection of robots and a very dangerous idea. It was possible it was the same this time, but at this point in time, teleportation was a mere pipe dream. Well, at least for this part of space.

So, who ever was doing this can't be in the ship. Still, there were plenty of creatures that could send something into the water that could sabotage the ship. But why? Was there something in here? Destroying the whole ship would cause a lot of unwanted attention for a person who only wanted to murder one person, so it was either for money, ideals or survival. The first the Doctor threw out immediately, NATOAR had told them that the cruise had already ran out of money, there was no way to squeeze cash out of it. Ideals were a possibility, but it seemed like a slow way to do it. A much easier way would have been to over power the engine and blow up the whole ship.

So that just left survival. The Doctor sighed, as he continued down one of the many corridors leading to the control room. Everyone tried to survive, it was part of being alive. But surviving didn't mean that others could not. Even humans had worked that one out, eventually. But still, a species trying to survive was always harder to stop, which was stupid. He always offered a way to save them, a planet where they could live, survive. But it never seemed to be enough, they rarely took his kindness, always made him have to do it the hard way. Maybe next time he should tell them that he could take them to a different time as well. That always seemed to sway people, if space travel didn't work. But a species that was trying to survive was dangerous, focused. A species that could do this was very, very dangerous.

The Doctor found himself in the control room. What had been basically a ghost ship was now full of life, chaos. The various species in various uniforms were running around the room, giving reports to one another. The Doctor paused, and listened. He could hear the engineers saying how it was impossible, how the engine should still be going. The pilots were inputting the co-ordinates into the escape pods that would allow them to escape the gravity of the Bulla while reducing the xtonic rays to the crew members inside them. The communicators were trying to send a distress signal that would reach far enough to get a cruiser for the escaped crew. So, maybe they did know about the engines dying down.

In the middle, sitting on two of the three chairs looking out towards the end of the room, were two people dressed in the same sort of uniform that Captain Bailey had been wearing. There was a woman, around forty years old, her hair tied back and tucked under her hat. Her uniform was more grey then the captains white uniform, so she was probably the chief engineer. Next to her was a what looked like a bald man, except he was completely blue. His skin clashed with his green uniform, which signalled him out as the lead pilot.

The Doctor concentrated on the conversation between the two, hoping they would reveal the location of the captain. It was important he found him, he was getting a really bad feeling of what was out there.

"The captain should be here, look how chaotic all this is!" The woman said, waving her arm to the chaos of the control room. "A captain should be where his crew is!" Bingo, thought the Doctor.

The blue man spoke up. "Not when he has a plan to save the ship. He thinks the robot can get a better look at the engines. After that, he'll come up with a plan of what to do. He always does." 

"Yes, but even he must run out of ideas some day. And it won't matter soon, the shields will be down and we'll be out of here, waiting to be picked up by the nearest cruiser. If he's still in that lab when the time comes, it will be his own fault." The woman looked around, and sighed. "And we were finally getting more funds to continue the project. This is the worst thing that could happen to us!"

The blue man took her hand. "You can see why he's trying to save it. The pods should be used as a last resort only. Well, almost the last resort."

The woman smiled. "At least we won't have to worry about using it. That's one weight of our minds."

The Doctor realised he had heard enough, and headed off the the labs. He returned a second later, trying to find a map. He saw a young woman with long apple green hair, looking at a map of the ship at a computer screen. She had an anxious expression painted on her face, as if she knew that something more then a simple engine malfunction was happening. The Doctor walked over to her.

"Excuse me, could you hold this for a second?" The Doctor gave the woman a card. She looked down, and saw in bright yellow letters, the words "Don't Worry". For some strange reason, this made her feel less anxious about deserting the ship. "And I'll take that back now, thank you!" Just as quickly as he had given it, the Doctor snatched back the paper. The calming words had gone, and in their place was the map the the woman had been concentrating on. "Very useful, thank you for your time." He grinned at her, the hurried off down a corridor, leaving the green haired woman very confused.

You never know, the Doctor mused to himself, continuing with his thoughts, it could be a species that knew nothing about the concepts of space and time. They could realise that there was something happening, but never quite understanding what it is. It would be hard to help a species if they didn't realise that they was time and space, let alone that they could travel through it. But a species that could travel into a Bulla must know some of the basics about space and time, and wouldn't need to do anything to the ship. Unless it was in the Bulla already. But that was impossible, surely. The only thing in the Bulla apart from the ship was a bunch of fish! Well, fish like things.

And besides, if there was anything out there, why did it wait until now? What had changed recently, except for the Doctor, Amy and Rory appearing. And the tourists coming along, as well. So all that had changed was that there was a bunch of strangers in the ship, both which could leave the Bulla.

Oh no. "How could I be so stupid! Whatever is here isn't living here, it's stuck here!" The Doctor looked around, then looked at the map. He had to go faster. "What ever is stuck here..." He murmured to himself, as he lifted up a panel in the floor. "Is trying to escape." He took one more look around, then jumped into the pipe line in the floor. "Geronimo!"


End file.
